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Carrot Cake Recipe

This easy carrot cake recipe is rich, moist, delicious and incredibly simple to make. As an added bonus it’s an especially flexible recipe, therefore it allows the addition of walnuts, raisins or coconut if desired.

I love a good carrot cake recipe, and this homemade carrot cake recipe is probably one of my all time favorite cake recipes. Above all the flavor and texture combination created in this cake are simply divine. While carrot cake is a must have Easter dessert for my family, truth be told I could happily eat it long beyond spring. As it seems like any good carrot cake should be, this one is topped with an amazing cream cheese frosting.

HOMEMADE CARROT CAKE RECIPE

When I make carrot cake, this has usually been my go-to recipe since I was in college. Because I like to keep my recipes simple, this recipe has always been at the top of my list. However this cake is not only simple, most of all it’s delicious. For me it’s essential that carrot cake is homemade, therefore I rarely start with a box mix.

While I am a big fan of doctored cake mixes, I think carrot cake is one you want to go from scratch instead. Thankfully making carrot cake from scratch is particularly easy to make. If you haven’t made one before, you will probably be surprised at how simple they are to make.

Whenever I make this cake people have a tendency to say things about it. For instance I often hear, “this is the best cake I’ve ever had” or “I need this recipe immediately”. In other words, this is a cake that your friends and family will especially love. In all honesty this is probably one of the best cake recipes I have, therefore I’m really excited to share it with you.

Mix-In Options

Another great thing about this carrot cake recipe is that it’s really flexible and forgiving. If you want nuts or raisins in your cake, go ahead and add them. Carrot cake is a rather dense cake instead of a light and airy cake, hence there is more flexibility for mix-in ingredients. Coconut would be another great mix-in for this cake.

HOMEMADE POWDERED SUGAR

Due to poor planning on my part, when I made this cake I did not have any powdered sugar on hand. Because in my opinion cream cheese frosting is absolutely essential when it comes to carrot cake, consequently I needed powdered sugar. Thankfully it’s easy to make your own powdered sugar at home.

In case you ever find yourself in the same situation, here’s how you can make powdered sugar from granulated sugar. You just have to run your sugar through a food processor or blender. Just a few short minutes later it will transform into powdered sugar which is perfect for your favorite frosting recipes. As a result there is no need for that last minute store run to buy powdered sugar.

Simply add your granulated sugar to your food processor and run it for about five minutes.

Voila, finally you have made powdered sugar! Given the choice I still prefer a traditional powdered sugar as this isn’t quite the same. When in a pinch however, homemade powdered sugar is almost as good as the real deal, and it works great.

How Do You Make Carrot Cake

Back to our cake, which you don’t even need your stand mixer for. This carrot cake is easily mixed by hand and as a result you could make it all in one bowl if you like.

While I leave out the nuts in our carrot cake due to a tree nut allergy in our family, I do prefer this cake with walnuts or pecans. What I do not enjoy in my carrot cake is raisins, though I won’t judge if they are a favorite in your family. Simply add in a cup of raisins or chopped nuts to the batter if desired.

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

Once the cake is completely cool, it’s time for frosting. The current trend for “naked” cakes works wonderfully with this cake. Naked cakes are incredibly easy, using a less is more philosophy. Another reason the naked cake concept works well with this recipe is that carrot cake is undeniably rich. Therefore using less frosting helps balance out the rich cake flavor.

A little frosting tip for you – when adding frosting to cakes use an ice cream scoop rather than your spatula to get the frosting to the cake, then spread with an offset spatula.

Decorating Carrot Cake

Finally it’s time to decorate our cake. Carrot cake is one of the cakes I struggle with when it comes to decoration ideas. Growing up my mom used to cover ours in chopped walnuts, but that’s not a choice for us because of food allergies. Accordingly, I have to find something different such as sprinkles or candied carrot curls. Candied carrot curls make for a particularly pretty cake topping. Cupcake Project has a great tutorial on making candied carrot curls.

For this cake however I used small cut-out carrot hearts. These sweet little hearts are made by first cutting a carrot into thin slices. Next the slices are cut into heart shapes out of them with a miniature cutter. The cutter I use is actually made for working with clay. Small cutters can be found in your hobby or craft store. My mini heart cutters were ordered online through Amazon.

Final Touches

Finally, in addition to sprinkling on carrot hearts, I also added some sugar crystals to the cake. Toppings such as these are optional and you can use as little or as much as you would like. After all, this is one of the few cakes that I think looks especially nice with minimal decoration. As a result just using frosting alone can be enough to make this cake look beautiful.

Ingredients

Carrot Cake

1 1/2cupsvegetable oilyou could use coconut oil or another oil if you prefer

1cupapplesauce

2teaspoonsvanilla extract

3cupsshredded carrots

Frosting

8ozsoftened cream cheese

1/2cupsoftened butter

3 1/2cupspowdered sugar

2teaspoonsvanilla extract

Pinch of salt

1tablespoonwhipping creammilk will also work

Instructions

Cake

First, preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Next grease and flour two 9-inch round cake pans. If desired add parchment circles to the bottom of the pans for easy cake removal.

In a large bowl mixing bowl, mix together flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.

Using a separate bowl, beat eggs slightly. Add oil and vanilla extract to eggs. Stir to combine. Add shredded carrots and apple sauce to the mixture and stir to combine.

Fold the wet mixture to dry mixture and stir until just combined. Do not over stir.

Finally spoon batter into prepared pans and bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cakes comes out clean.

Cool cake for approximately 10 minutes in pans, then transfer cake to wire racks to cool completely prior to frosting.

Frosting

In a large mixing bowl, beat together softened cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy.

Next, with the mixer on low, slowly add powdered sugar, mixing well. Add in vanilla, salt and whipping cream. Beat mixture on medium for approximately three minutes. If frosting is thicker than you prefer, you can add an additional tablespoon of cream or milk.

Recipe Notes

Mix-ins such as chopped walnuts, pecans or raisins can be added to the batter just prior to pouring batter into pans. This recipe can accommodate about one and one half cups of mix-ins.

As a rule I mix wet ingredients and dry ingredients separately. However I have mixed all ingredients in the same bowl without noticing a difference in the final product. To use a single bowl, mix wet ingredients first followed by the dry ingredients.

Nutrition Facts

Carrot Cake Recipe

Amount Per Serving

Calories 552

* Nutrition information is estimated as a courtesy. If using for medical purposes, please verify information using your own nutritional calculator. Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

More Great Carrot Recipes

By the way, I have a few other carrot cake recipes that are beyond delicious. In addition to this recipe, check out my other carrot cake recipes. Do you prefer a sheet cake instead of a layer cake? This Carrot Sheet Cake recipe is similar, but is especially easy to transport due to being made in a sheet pan.

Need a lighter cake instead of a decadent one? For this reason you might want to try my light version of this cake. Applesauce is increased in this recipe and as a result you have a lighter cake.

In addition to today’s recipe, I also have a Carrot Bundt Cake recipe. This delicious cake has some rather surprising ingredients in it. It’s lighter and healthier, nevertheless it’s still the rich and delicious cake one expects with carrot cakes.

My carrot cupcakes are similar, however they offer built in portion control! By the way, I won’t judge if you eat two at a time.

This looks and sounds great and I am going to try. I personally love tall cakes. Can you tell me how tall each layer is after baking? I may want to double for 3 layers as I like cakes at least 4″ tall. Thank you.

This was my first cake made from scratch and it came out absolutely delicious. Best dessert I have made by far! I made two a simple one and one with nuts everyone who tried it swore we bought it because it was so good

Hi Lora, while I’ve never used them without cinnamon, my first thoughts would be ginger and nutmeg might work, but they do both have fairly distinct tastes so it would change the flavor. It might not be a bad thing, probably just different.

I used a yellow cake mix for this. I just added the spices and carrots and apple sauce and oil and eggs. I used a Bundt pan to bake it. However when I turned it out only the middle came out. It was all around so I went ahead and frosted it. The kids liked being able to help themselves to the part that clung to the pan.

I made this cake from scratch and it was delicious!!! The only thing my kids mentioned was that they missed the spices found in other carrot cakes. I wonder how it would be if I added more cinnamon. Otherwise, they all cleaned their dessert plates!!!